Enterprise Information Systems

Over the past few years, the spread of fake news or misinformation over social media platforms, primarily viewed as a significant digital threat, has increased significantly [1]. This fake news spread across the globe at lightning speed and profoundly affect various aspects of society, such as creating massive fluctuations in stock market trading, hampering the overall reputation of corporate giants, and even causing disruptions in supply chain management. However, fake news is often defined as misinformation about an event or object intentionally fabricated to mislead or emotionally charge people in a particular direction towards achieving specific interests, whether related to democratic, environmental, political or organizational contexts. Nevertheless, fake news is not limited to its evolution from intentionally manipulated information. It can also result from misinterpretation of some information due to a need for more transparency and understanding of information flow. It can also result from distortion of information due to the incorporation of bias, delays, errors or random noise from external sources. Fake news sources can be messaging apps, print media, electronic media, or even other apps. Since information forms the base of most crucial decisions, misinformation due to fake news may strongly impact the outcome of the decisions influenced by fake news [2]. Since most fake news imitates mainstream news, it is not easy to distinguish. Again, profuse usage and easy access to social has boosted the spread of fake news to targeted audiences. The recent pandemic outbreak has exhibited how the gap in information flow can lead to distortion of information, turning it into misinformation or fake news resulting in chaos, loss of lives and amplified disruptions in supply chain management. It induced such a panicked circumstance by halting production lines, forcing people to panic buy, resulting in excessively stocking up essential goods whether required or not, causing a supply shortage. Additionally, the halting of product lines created large fluctuations in the demand and supply equilibrium, thus affecting the overall performance of several organizations largely. It further negatively impacted both export and import activities and imposed uncertainty into the supply chain flow [3].

The supply chain of any business organization can be hindered if the crucial decisions are stimulated by the fake news or misinformation it has received [4]. Due to certain fake news, the business organization may hoard excessive supplies of certain goods, thus increasing the price of those specific goods. Thus, in turbulent situations, the inability to evaluate the authenticity of fake news may lead to disruption of societal activities and economical operations. This further threatens brand reputation, thus affecting consumption of products and services and causing uncertainty in supply chain operations. Supply chain disruption is the occurrence of disturbances in the flow of information, finance, resources or materials between organizations and other stakeholders such as manufacturers, distributors, retailers, suppliers and customers. These disturbances mainly occur due to political crises, wars, natural disasters, mass labour strikes, mass trauma incidents, marine mishaps, infectious disease outbreaks, etc. However, in the current scenario, supply chain disruptions are mainly occurring due to bad decisions based on fake news or panic-driven actions taken due to the dissemination of misinformation.

Moreover, information being an integral part of decisions related to cash flows, supply, demand, and overall returns, must be ensured as accurate. Most commonly occurring supply chain disruptions include shortages of essential goods, factory closures, price inflations, and negative affecting on economic wellbeing. This might further affect the agility of the organizations causing poor operational performance. Other supply chains that are usually highly affected due to dissemination of fake news include perishable goods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat and sea foods. However, organizations can overcome such situations by using their ability to interpret threats, reconfigure resources, and address the scenario effectively. Therefore, in this special issue, we are attempting to develop scholarly insights into how the spread of fake news impacts the sustainability of supply chain management. How do various stakeholders deal with the consequences of fake news in supply chain management? How are organizations dealing with the threats from false reports on social media impacting their reputation? How can organizations control the large-scale diffusion of fake news spreading false information over social media and causing chaos? Adopting fact-checking strategies and verifying the credibility and authentication of the information can help. The main goal of this special issue is to explore the characteristics of fake news and its impact on sustainable supply chain management. Thus, this issue invites original research works, methodologies and findings dealing with the issues mentioned earlier. The topics covered in the issue are listed below, although not limited to:

List of Topics

• Fake news, hoax, click-bait detection to avoid Supply Chain Disruptions
• Optimizing Fake News and astroturfing impact in Sustainable Supply Chain Management
• Fake News, detection using Artificial Intelligence Techniques
• Controlling AI generated contents such deep fakes in Sustainable Supply Chain Network
• Social Media Fake news & Supply Chain Sustainability
• Combating Social Media Fake news using Deep learning
• Fake News Classification using Machine Learning
• Supply Chain Disruption & Misinformation Ripple Effect
• Information Attack & Digital Supply Chain
• Decision Support System to detect crisis related events
• Infodemic Pattern Prediction using Pareto Analysis
• Real-time Data Analysis for Supply Chain Decisions
• Fake news Source rating using Industrial Engineering Techniques
• Humanitarian Logistics & Social Media Fake News
• Debiasing situational misinformation using Data-driven Approach
• Building Supply chain Resilience in Extreme Conditions weaponizing Fake News
• Organizational Decision Making & Integration of Intuition with Cause and Effect Technique
• Early Detection of Fake News to reduce Supply Chain Risks

Key Dates (tentative)

Deadline for manuscript submission: 31^st Aug 2024

Review report: Sep-Oct 2024

Revised paper submission deadline: Nov 2024

Notification of final acceptance: Dec 2024

Approximation publication date: on-line first upon acceptance

 

Manuscript submission information:

Please submit your manuscript before the submission deadline of 31^st Aug 2024. Original, high quality papers and empirical research papers for the theme of the special issue are welcome, while they should not be published, submitted and/or currently under review elsewhere.

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